by Amazon (AMZN) – Get a free reportthe e-commerce giant, began massive job cuts on Tuesday in response to the economic slowdown that is likely to turn into a recession in the coming months.
The company is expected to cut 10,000 jobs, or about 3% of the company’s workforce, an unprecedented move in its history.
The Whole Foods owner has begun notifying affected employees. Based on testimonials and posts on social networks, the headcount cut affects several divisions, including Alexa and the Luna cloud gaming unit.
“I just learned that I have been impacted by a recent layoff at Amazon,” said a post on the anonymous workplace app Blind on Nov. 15. package of 60 days and one week for every 6 months tenure. I will be kept on LOA (leave) for 60 days to find internal transfers.”
Founded in 2013, Blind provides private business channels for users to discuss workplace issues or gossip with colleagues.
‘super hard’
“It started yesterday. More layoffs today and tomorrow,” another user wrote.
“Unfortunately I was hit by today’s layoff with 10,000 other Amazonians. It’s super hard for all of us and I’m still trying to navigate through this as I’m constrained by the timeline of having a #visa,” said Shivani Parate on LinkedIn , a former software development engineer at Amazon. “I am nothing but grateful for the time I spent at Amazon, where I learned and worked with some of the brightest people in the industry.”
“I am immediately seeking a Software/Machine Learning Engineer role. Thanks in advance for any connections, advice or opportunities you can provide! Message me with any leads or reach me at shivani.parate@gmail.com. Thanks again!”
She concluded, “PS: To all my incredible colleagues who have also been affected, please get in touch so we can stay in touch and help each other. I sincerely hope we cross paths again!”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon has launched an austerity course to dramatically cut costs after years of massive hiring, especially during the pandemic. At that time, the group was unable to find workers for its warehouses.
‘Take some risks off the table’
But the economy is not doing well.
“I don’t know if we’re technically in a recession, economists argue about that — they have some technical definitions,” Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos said on Nov. 14. “But I can tell you the economy isn’t looking great right now. Things are slowing down. You’re seeing layoffs in many, many sectors of the economy, people are slowing down.”
“Chances are we’re not in a recession right now, but we probably will be in one soon,” he added.
He advised small businesses and individuals to “take some risks off the table”.
The company’s chief financial officer, Brian Olsavsky, said in October that Amazon is seeing signs that consumers are being affected by inflation, which is at its highest in 40 years.
“We are preparing for what could be a slower growth period,” Olsavsky told reporters after the release of third-quarter numbers.
As a result, Amazon issued disappointing holiday forecasts, warning on Nov. 2 that it would “stop new incremental hires in our corporate workforce.”
“We expect to continue this pause over the coming months and will continue to monitor what we see in the economy and the business to adjust if we feel it makes sense,” Beth Galetti, senior vice president of People Experience and Technology, wrote in a message to employees.
Amazon is not alone in making massive layoffs to limit the damage of the current economic situation. Meta platforms (META) – Get a free report last week announced the shedding of 11,000 jobs, or 13% of the group’s 87,000 employees. It was the first cut in Facebook’s history since its founding in 2004.
Downsizing has spread across the tech and crypto sector: Twitter (TWTR) – Get a free reportLyft (LYFT) – Get a free reportCoinbase (MINT) – Get a free reportStripe, Microsoft (MSFT) – Get a free report recently cut all jobs.
Alphabet (GOOGL) – Get a free reportApple (AAPL) – Get a free report and others have stopped or slowed down the pace of recruitment.
